The CCB sleuths take Abhinava Halashree Swami, an accused in Chaithra Kundapur case, to the Halaswami Mutt at Hirehadagali in Huvinahadagali taluk of Vijayanagar district on Wednesday night.
DH Photo
The Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the Bengaluru police is on track to recover 80% of the sum obtained fraudulently by Hindutva activist Chaithra Kundapur by promising a businessman a BJP ticket for the Assembly elections held in May this year.
A well-placed CCB source revealed that the probe team has managed to recover over Rs 2 crore from Chaithra, who allegedly cheated Govind Babu Poojari.
Poojari claimed he had paid Rs 5 crore for a BJP ticket from Byndoor constituency.
“The recovered sum from Chaithra, the prime suspect, includes a fixed deposit of Rs 1.08 crore, Rs 81 lakh in cash and gold worth Rs 23 lakh,” the police officer told DH. “There is a house being built, but we have to check if it was constructed using Poojari’s money.”
A team of CCB sleuths conducted an inquest (mahajar) on Wednesday night at the mutt in Hirehadagali (Vijayanagar district) belonging to another suspect, Abhinava Halashree Swami, who, the police said, received Rs 1.5 crore from Poojari.
“From the seer, we have recovered Rs 56 lakh,” the police officer said.
“Of the Rs 1.5 crore, Rs 50 lakh was returned earlier to the complainant. The remaining Rs 44 lakh is yet to be recovered. From Gagan Kudur, one of the other suspects who received money from Chaithra, Rs 10 lakh was recovered.”
The CCB is also looking at using one Prasad Byndoor as an approver or a prosecution witness. “Apart from the eight suspects, Byndoor had introduced Kundapur to Poojari and played a minimal role. Byndoor is not involved in monetary transactions,” the officer said.
Bengaluru City Police Commissioner B Dayananda confirmed the sum recovered from Kundapur and the seer and said that the eight suspects are currently in police custody and investigations are on.
“The further recovery of cash and other items is underway,” Dayananda said on Thursday. “The questioning (of some others) is a part of the investigation and it will go on.”